1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a packing device for oil well shafts, and more particularly, to a packing tool assembly that can be used for vertical and horizontal oil wells to seal main conduits during the bore preparation phase.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many designs for sealing oil wells have been designed in the past. None of them, however, include a system for sealing the well bore by compressing rubber cylinder members with the setting tool without retrieving the latter from the oil well bore. This obviates the time consuming task of taking out the setting tool before sealing the bore, which is required by conventional well packers or sealers. In the operation of oil wells, it is common to seal the well bore to prevent the flow of oil outside the conduit (through the space that exists between the conduit and the bore). To this end, after the preparation of the well bore, a setting tool is utilized to prepare the oil well bore and it needs to be withdrawn (a time consuming operation since these bores extend for thousands of meters) so that the sealer or packer apparatus can then be installed. In the present invention this is overcome and the setting tool is not withdrawn to install the packer or sealer assembly. Rather, the sealer assembly is carried by the setting tool and remains on the setting tool during the preparation stage without interfering with this operation. Subsequently, the packer assembly is installed in place.
Applicants believe that one the closest references corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,957 issued to Scranton in 1989 for a packer and service tool assembly. This reference also provides a sealing packing tool assembly. However, it differs from the present invention because Scranton""s patented assembly provides for the compression of the packer elements to be accomplished with a slips system. This made Scranton""s packer complicated and difficult to use, let alone being more expensive. Scranton""s invention requires around 3 days for installation and usually the packer is jammed delaying considerably its installation process.
Applicants also believe that another related reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,240 issued to Baugh et al. in 1983 for a well packer. Baugh et al.""s patented invention also provides a sealing packer operated with a slips system. Baugh et al.""s patented invention is also very difficult to operate. It does not disclose the deformable sealing cylinders included in the present invention.
Finally, Applicant believes that another related reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,172 issued to Westra in 1997 for a seal-sub packer and a setting tool therefor. Westra""s patented sub-packer assembly is formed by a two-mandrel packer and a setting tool, which positions the packer within the casing. However, it differs from the present invention because Westra""s sub-packer assembly is designed to work only with Westra""s setting tool. With the present invention the packer device can be installed with any standard setting tool.
None of these references, or any other device known to Applicants, provide for a packer assembly that can be lowered with the preparation rig and installed without requiring the retrieval of the rig.
Other patents describing the closest subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.
It is one of the main objects of the present invention to provide a sealing packer assembly for vertical and horizontal bores that can be carried by a setting tool during the preparation operation and can be installed without requiring the withdrawal of the setting tool.
It is another object of this invention to provide such a device that can be used to seal a well bore during the extraction phase forcing the oil to flow through the filter avoiding the extraction of significant amount of sand and mud.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a sealing packer easy to install and operate.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide such a device that is inexpensive to manufacture and maintain while retaining its effectiveness.
Further objects of the invention will be brought out in the following part of the specification, wherein detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the invention without placing limitations thereon.